Newsmaker: Sutirtha Bhattacharya

When Sutirtha Bhattacharya takes charge as the chairman & managing director of state-owned Coal India, the government will have started e-auction of coal mines to private players and opened the sector for commercial mining, and his company's unions will be on an indefinite strike against the move. He will have to battle the old charges of inadequate output and low efficiency against the world's largest coal miner. Coal India may be a Maharatna, a super jewel, but for Bhattacharya it could be a crown of thorns.

Coal India has been without a full-time CMD for almost six months now. The last incumbent, S Narsing Rao, resigned in May. The government advertised for his successor aggressively, spending around Rs 1.5 crore on the effort. It received a lukewarm response and negligible participation from the private sector. As a result, the applications were fewer than expected. Among those shortlisted were IAS officers from Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Manipur and an executive of the Indian Railway Traffic Service.

The Public Enterprise Selection Board finalised Bhattacharya last month from among 12 candidates who applied for the post. This week, the Appointments Committee of Cabinet finally appointed Bhattacharya, a 1985 Andhra Pradesh cadre IAS officer. Bhattacharya last served as the CMD of Singareni Collieries Company, the second largest coal miner in the country after Coal India. He has earlier served in the urban development, power, agriculture and land revenue departments of the Andhra Pradesh government.

The CMD of Coal India was the most sought after public sector job in the country not so long ago, and executives from the private sector, IAS officers and other government officials would often jostle to get it. Now marred with controversies and held to ransom by unions for reasons ranging from commercial mining to disinvestment, the job has lost much of its shine. The government wanted to get a full-time CMD for the company before the coal sector opens up for commercial mining, as allowed under the latest ordinance. The Supreme Court in its judgement dated 24 September cancelled all but four coal block allocations made to the private sector in the past two decades. It also asked Coal India to take over these mines till they are re-allocated.

The labour unions of Coal India, led by the Coal India Trade Union, have already announced a strike for five days from January 6. Its statement said that the strike is against the "government's retrograde move to denationalise and privatise coal mining through Ordinance and Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Bill 2014." The All India Coal Workers' Federation has also decided to go in for a countrywide strike on January 13 to endorse and support the five-day strike call by the labour unions.